KSC Team

I loved the ideas that seemed to come from no-where. The games that did not too closely mirror any one game on Earth. I especially appreciated when the students incorporated elements in their games that directly related to some aspect of the Martian environment. Most of the students included drawings with their entry and that really helped me to “see” what they had in mind.

BioInspired Scientists Winners

After just a first glance at the entries, I was already quite impressed by how many really good ideas there were. The future of science and technology is in very good hands (and heads)!

Entries that particularly caught my eye were those that were clearly bio-inspired, in the best spirit of what the contest was about. “Bio-inspired” is about developing an idea from something that nature does, and not merely using a natural product for something.

Another factor that, for me, contributes to the eventual success of an entry is whether or not the idea is simple. By “simple”, I don’t necessarily mean “easy”. I mean an idea that is elegant, with a good likelihood that it can be made to work in some useful way. I am really being guided by a long-used philosophical principle known as “Ockham’s Razor” (named for William of Ockham, a monk who lived 700 years ago), which states that the simplest solution to a problem is usually the best solution.
Science at its best will have a positive impact on society – it has the capacity to improve the quality of life. Entries that connected their proposal to a plausible benefit of this kind were more likely to hold my attention.

Ultimately, I was most captivated by those entries that made me want to run into the lab and start doing some experiments. I am looking forward to doing just that in the company of the winner. And I very much hope that kids everywhere, when they read about the winning projects, will want to work with their teachers and/or families and/or friends to try some related experiments too.